The Threads of Rose Weasley's Sanity
by thislittlepiggi
Summary: Rose wasn't sure when it had become acceptable to flirt with him. She wasn't even sure when he started looking back at her with amusement and interest.


The Threads of Rose Weasley's Sanity

**Disclaimer:** Entirely J.K. Rowling's world. Anything you recognize is not my own. Please feel free to R&R. Feedback is much appreciated.

CHAPTER 1: Reconnaissance

Rose wasn't sure when it had become acceptable to flirt with him. She wasn't even sure when he started looking back at her with amusement and interest. She supposed it had begun after Hogwarts.

Their paths rarely crossed at Hogwarts. Scorpius Malfoy had been a Ravenclaw two years ahead of Rose and Albus. Sometime in his fourth year and their second, Scorpius had befriended Louis and Molly Weasley in detention (he still denies setting off a filibuster in History of Magic as it would be against his sensible Ravenclaw nature to disturb a lesson - even one as boring as Binns). Eventually the taciturn Ravenclaw had been accepted into the boisterous Weasley-Potter fold. Whenever Albus and Rose were permitted to hang out with (_read: trail after)_ their older cousins, Scorpius would also be in the midst.

"No", thought Rose as she shook her head, she had barely known who he was then. Rose was the second Weasley to be sorted into Slytherin much to her father's horror and mother's amusement. Hermione Weasley nee Granger had no disillusions of who her daughter was, while her husband preferred to see his firstborn through rose (pardon the pun) colored glasses.

Roxanne Weasley had been the first Weasley in Slytherin. However, the dark haired beauty had graduated before Rose had joined the green and silver ranks. Unlike Roxeanne who had used her Slytherin cunning to terrorize the Hogwarts student body with pranks, Rose largely spent her time rehabilitating the Slytherin image.

Using her connections to the other Houses (her cousins were littered in Gryffindor and Hufflepuff and by extension had many friends in Ravenclaw), she bridged the centuries old gap between the three houses and Slytherin. Once the Wotter clan had embraced the devious house, the other houses were quick to follow.

Rose's strategy to restore the former Slytherin glory was simple: she orchestrated situations for the four houses to interact as much as possible. In her mind exposure bred civility, civility brought respect, and from respect bloomed friendship and tolerance.

Initially, she would make a point of introducing her cousins and family friends to the silver house members they would most likely bond with. In fact, it was she who had introduced the creature obsessed Lysander Scamander to his future girlfriend and magical creature conservationist, Victoria Tames.

To warm up her hard-headed cousins, she set up monthly scrimmage Quidditch tournaments where the teams were randomly assigned. More often than not, the players would leave the pitch as reluctant comrades.

However, it was her inter-house parties for which she had become legendary for. Her attention to detail, wicked sense of fun, and endless acquaintances had made each of her projects massively successfully. So when Rose launched her event planning business after Hogwarts, no one had blinked an eye.

By the time she had graduated Hogwarts (with eight N.E. . and as the Slytherin Quidditch captain), she had barely spared a thought towards the platinum blonde.

It wasn't until Rose was hired by the Ministry to plan the thirty year Wizarding War Remembrance Gala, that she begun interacting with the sardonic Malfoy heir. Scorpius, a liaison for the Ministry, had set up bi-weekly meetings to plan the massive gala.

Initially, Rose had been polite and charming, but distanced herself using an air of professionalism. However, Scorpius' dry wit and insightful suggestions had piqued her curiosity.

When she complained that notorious asshole and Head of Magical Transportation Daniel Roberts was refusing to set up Portkey for foreign diplomats because it was too much work, Scorpius snorted in agreement, "Roberts couldn't find his wand from his ass. Why don't we set up different magical transportations? Knight bus, threstals, carriages, brooms, boats…It'll be more work but I think people will appreciate it."

Overall Rose enjoyed working with him. He was diligent, informative, and actively engaged in planning the Gala. Professionally, she couldn't have asked for a better liaison. However, on a personal level she found him extremely confusing.

On one hand, he was extremely polite and chivalrous: the young Malfoy would always open the restaurant doors, guide her to their reserved table with a gentle hand on the small of her back, and walked her back to the floo channel.

Rose couldn't help but be soften a little by his action. Every time Scorpius opened a door for her, Rose could hear Nana Molly's words 'Wizards should respect and treat witches with kindness'.

On the other hand, his demeanor was stoic. When they spoke, his gray eyes would occasionally flash with mirth, but mostly his face remained impassive.

He would answer all of her questions but rarely offer anything more than was required. Not to mention when he did speak, his quips sent her head spinning and left her feeling unsettled.

For example, when she had mentioned her employee and friend of Scorpius' Brady Hughes was seeing someone new, his drawling response: "I hadn't pegged you as a salacious gossip Weasley" left her feeling uneasy.

While she outwardly grinned unbothered, "Runs in the family Malfoy.", internally she felt conflicted. Was he simply teasing her or was he saying something more? Was he criticizing her gregarious nature? And why the hell did it matter?

Frankly, it frustrated her that she could not discern his motive. She wasn't sure where she stood with him and it unnerved her. People were safer when their motive was clear.

Soon she subtly began reconnaissance on the reclusive blonde by probing her various family members whom he was better acquainted with.

Her male cousins were the easiest to get information from. Launching her attack when their defenses were the lowest, she posed her question after their weekly Weasley-Potter brunch, "Do you think Nana would consider catering for the Remembrance Gala?"

Fred's dark eyes lit up at the idea of Nana Molly's delicious pot roast, "If she does, I might actually want to go."

James and Louis nodded in agreement before Hugo asked wrinkling his nose, "Don't they usually serve some weird muggle food to try to promote muggle-wizard relations?"

While well-intended, the Ministry almost always managed to serve the oddest muggle food pairings, e.g., mustard on cold pizza, s'mores with frog legs, or more memorably to everyone's revulsion: hotdogs and cereal. Similar to wizards who had rarely interacted with muggles and wore bizarre clothing choices in the muggle world, the Ministry's catering choices were questionable at best.

"Yeah, Malfoy and I are trying to change that. He's advocating for Italian or Chinese," She kept her tone neutral hoping his name would spark a reaction.

"Scorpius is helping you?" Fred interjected and at her ascertaining nod continued, "I thought he was part of the finance department?"

This time it was Louis who spoke, "It's the Slytherin in him. He's trying to get on your mum's campaign team, so he's using projects like the Gala to get more recognition".

Now it made sense. Hermione Weasley was announcing her bid for Minister of Magic during the Remembrance Gala. She had not yet hired a campaign finance advisor. While Rose was a little surprised Scorpius knew this, she chalked it up to Louis' blabber mouth.

As the conversation moved back to the terrible Ministry food ("Oh dear Godric, do you remember the Gyros in chicken noodle soup?"), Rose focused on weaseling information from her female cousins.

Much to her frustration, the opportunity to probe them did not present itself until much later. After several weeks of playing mental chess with Scorpius, Rose leaped at the chance to go shopping with her female cousins.

On a bright but unreasonable frosty February morning, Rose emerged from the dressing room in an intricate silver dress robes. Rose raised an eyebrow to her cousins who were sprawled across the dressing room chairs and asked, "Well? Is this rubbish or do I look hot?"

Lucy beamed back while Lily nodded in agreement, "Looks fantastic on you! The coloring is perfect for you and Scorpius."

Molly's curlean eyes widened at Lily's words.

Molly was one of Scorpius' best friends. She had always been protective of him and their bond. She had fiercely defended him against anyone who spoke out against his parentage and as a result frequently ended up in detention at Hogwarts.

"Scorpius asked you to the gala?" Molly questioned Rose.

Rose shrugged, "Oh, he's just helping me plan it. We'll probably have to dance a bit. Why? Are you guys going together?"

Molly deflated. "No. I'm going with Teo." Immediately, Lily and Dominique donned identical cheshire grins and turned on Molly.

"Teo, huh? The hunky Italian from the Department of Secrets you've been refusing to acknowledge?"

As Molly fumbled to give an answer sufficient to silence Lily and Dominique, Rose narrowed her eyes. While Molly had always claimed her relationship with Scorpius was strictly platonic, Rose found her reaction odd. Filing away this information, Rose made a mental note to investigate later.

"—You're no fun Mols", Dominique pouted interrupting Rose's musings, "Honestly, I'd be thrilled if Teo even breathed the same air as me."

Rose grinned. Dom was not quite the airhead she portrayed herself to be. Of all Weasley-Potter clan, Dominique's snarky streak would have made her a fine addition to Slytherin. Personally Rose thought her sass was wasted in Hufflepuff.

"Don't think you've escaped Rose!" Lily who had apparently noticed her snickering, brandished her wand comically close to Rose's face.

Taking a step back, Rose stuck her tongue out at Lily. She often regressed to childish behavior around her cousins.

Lily ignored her and continued, "Admit it. Stop playing cool and admit you're excited for every one-on-one meeting with Mr. Sex-on-legs." Ignoring Lucy's groan, Lily continued to cheerfully compare the blonde's 'fantastic shoulders and bum' to her current fling: starring beater of the league winning Montrose Magpies**.**

Rose simply grinned and shook her head in faux disbelief. Inwardly, Rose cheered at Lily's romantic nature.

During her weekly lunches with Lily, Rose had tactfully dropped that she and Scorpius were working on the gala. And as she suspected, Lily would interpret her interactions with any red-blooded man, especially one as good-looking as Scorpius, as romantic. Predictably, Lily had began making innuendos between her and the blonde.

However, Rose was counting on Lily's tenacity at matchmaking to do all the hard lifting in gathering intel about Scorpius and laying claim that Scorpius was Rose's without tipping Rose's hand.

While Rose was not ready to outright confirm or deny the youngest Potter's assumption, she was carefully analyzing the situation. Rose wasn't naive enough to think she wasn't at least sexually interested in the former Ravenclaw. Strong forearms, sharply tailored robes, and a crooked smile put him leagues above most of her usual flings.

However, she had dated enough men to know she could not do casual with Scorpius Malfoy and face him for the next ten years as he acted as her mother finance advisor (because let's face it: Hermione Weasley would be the next Minister of Magic).

She still had strong reservations about anything more though. But first, she needed to figure out what who he truly was and more importantly, what he wanted.

"—Mols? Don't you think Scorpius and Rose would make a beautiful couple?" Lily spearheaded forward.

"Or at the very least have a damn good shag?" piped in Dominique.

Molly paused as she considered her words, "Uhh…I'm not sure about the shagging and I'm also not sure if Rose is quite Scorpius type. He usually goes for the composed studious type."

I.e., _the perfect pureblood wife_.

Molly continued, looking curiously at Rose, "But he's also not your usual type. I thought you like outgoing Quidditch players?"

Rose swept her navy eyes back to the rows of robes and shrugged noncommittally, "Sometimes it's nice to have a conversation."

She turned back to Molly with a saucy smile, "Besides you would not believe the amount of time I had to spend teaching the Falmouth Falcon's seeker to find my clit".

At this, the five cousins dissolved into giggles.

Author's note: So what do you think of Rose? And our confusing young Malfoy? And _I know, I know_, Scorpius is supposed to be in Rose and Albus' year, but creative liberties? :)


End file.
